


The Red Line

by R_S



Category: One Piece
Genre: Blood and Gore, East Blue, M/M, Pre-Grand Line, Sexual Assault, The Red Line, Torture, Whipping
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-14
Updated: 2014-08-14
Packaged: 2018-02-13 03:28:01
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2135343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/R_S/pseuds/R_S
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>East Blue may be considered the Weakest of Seas, yet still, there are dangers. Enemies, hardened and cruel, and it is difficult to tell if they were born that way, or if they are simply products resulting from the Great Pirate Era.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Afraid?

**Author's Note:**

> ***I do not own One Piece, and all credit belongs to the Brilliant Eiichiro Oda***

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zoro's been traveling around East Blue for a while. He's been a lot of places the others haven't. Some places have been kinder than others. Some places, he'd rather never see again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***I do not own One Piece. All credit belongs to the brilliant Eiichiro Oda.***

“You stupid shitty asshole!” 

“Calm down, Sanji-kun.” 

“B-but Nami-swan! This shitty shit –”

“Yelling at him won’t change anything.” 

“Nami-Swaan???!” 

Merry drifts along the tender swells and gentle waves of East Blue. Sails full of salty wind and spray, glistening the still-fresh paint depicting skull-and-crossbones with a straw hat on its head. The Strawhats have barely set out from Cocoyasi Village two days ago. The plan, as their navigator had set, had been to sail directly as possible southwest towards Louguetown (the island closest to the supposed entrance of the Grand Line) hopefully avoiding contact with Marine vessels… not that Nami was really worried about Marine vessels, not with the Monster Trio of Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji. Hell, even Usopp was proving pretty useful, he’s was a wiz with the cannon. 

No, she didn’t have any worries at all. Their ship had been fully stocked with gunpowder, fresh water, fuel for their tiny but surprisingly efficient on-ship generator, and food… well… they were supposed to have been stocked with enough food for the five of them to reach Louguetown (roughly a 2 month journey). Of course that was assuming that everyone ate like a single person should. 

The newly recruited Strawhat Cook, Sanji, had been a chef for a long time – longer than he could remember… ever since he was a little kid washing dishes and peeling potatoes on huge ocean liners in North Blue. He had a vast knowledge of all kinds of different appetites large and small. But he had never met anyone quite like the Rubber Man, Monkey D Luffy, Captain of the Strawhat Pirates – or his stomach – before. The cook sobbed, cigarette dangling forlornly from his lips as he observed the disheveled contents of his recently-plundered refrigerator.

“Shitty Gommu!” he moaned. 

Luffy himself was seated at the table with fresh lumps blossoming across his skull. It was a mystery how their redheaded navigator, Nami, could inflict such injury on him, seeing as how he was made of rubber, and she was reputably so weak and helpless in battle. Usopp sat cross legged on a platform not far away, tinkering and muttering to himself. He had absolutely no interest in getting himself involved with anything that might incur the girl’s wrath. 

“What do you have to say for yourself, Sencho?” Nami asked Luffy, pulling his cheek out almost half a meter as he yipped and tried to turn his face away. 

“D-d-d-donno whaa-whacha talkin’ a-a-bout!” he stammered. Luffy was a notoriously terrible and obvious liar, but it didn’t matter much in this case. Only he could have eaten enough food for five people for two entire months in the middle of the night while everyone else was asleep. 

“I’m going to shitty kill you!” Sanji roared, but Nami put up a hand. 

“That’ll do.” She warned, “We’ll just need to find a place to port and restock before we head further south.” 

The blond cook took a deep breath before nodding and relighting his cigarette that had gone out. “As Nami-swan wishes.” He says, and it’s clear he is greatly distressed by the heinous defilement of his sacred kitchen space, because his usual fawning for the redhead’s beauty and ingenuity is extremely reserved.

“What’ve we got left?” Nami asked. 

“Ah, the sake, about half a bag of potatoes, there’s some greens… bag of rice…” Sanji takes inventory carefully and determines they have enough food to survive on for another six days… except… 

“NO MEAT!” Luffy’s eyes go wide, “WE CAN’T GO WITHOUT MEAT!” 

“Then some shitty asshole shouldn’t have eaten it all!” 

“Oi, oi!” Usopp admonishes as Sanji throws Luffy bodily against the cabin wall. “Don’t damage the ship!” 

Zoro pushes open the door to poke a head in. “Oi, there’s something out here.” He says, unimpressed by the blond cook strangling and shaking his captain. 

“What is it?” Nami asks. 

“Donno, come have a look.” 

 

Some way out to starboard a wide whirlpool was slowly sucking at the surrounding sea, which would be a perfectly normal phenomenon if… 

“OOOOh! Is that a castle?” Luffy points from his seat on Merry’s figurehead, skin absolutely rippling with excitement. 

It certainly looks like a castle, but it’s just a jutting rock reaching high into the sky at the very center of the swirling water. It looks large enough to be an island of some kind, but there would be no way to dock there without doing serious damage to their caravel class ship. 

“Hard to port, let’s get away from it, whatever it is!” 

“Oi, Na-mi!” Luffy whines. “We gatta explore it!” 

“We gatta not sink the ship, Sencho!” She shouts back at him. “Consider this your punishment for eating all the food in the middle of the night!” 

 

Zoro and Usopp take the helm and steer Merry away, more westward towards the Red Line. They are so close to the great mass of crimson earth which circles the world perpendicular to the Grand Line, that they can see the shreds of cloudy atmosphere that gathers above it. 

“Wew.” Usopp wipes his forehead on his striped arm band, once he and Zoro have finally managed a course Nami is happy with. The sniper stares out towards the dark sky and hazy mass beneath it in the distance. “I’ve never been so close to the Red Line before.” He tells Zoro excitedly. 

“You’re not missing much.” Zoro tells him, and the sniper notices the Strawhat swordsman’s eyes darken strangely as he gazes off in that direction. 

“You’ve been there?” Usopp asks. 

“Yea.” he admits. “A year ago.” Usopp hasn’t known Zoro very long, and he’d be lying to say that he wasn’t dead terrified of the man most of the time, but he couldn’t help but notice how a bead of sweat rolled down the side of the green haired man’s face – or how his right hand drifted down to clamp suddenly shaky fingers around the white katana he never went anywhere without. “I’d rather not go back.” 

XXX

With their ship redirected into calm, open water, Nami pushes her way over to the table to spread out a large map, Sanji at her heals, and the five crew members gather around. 

“We need to procure more food, because we won’t last with just a six day supply to reach Louguetown and restock again before entering the Grand Line.” The redhead explains. “There aren’t a lot of options, not this side of East Blue anyway.” She points out several courses as she explains them. “We could head back north, there are a few island with minimal Marine affiliations, but they are small towns, and I don’t know if we could find or buy enough to keep us going for the longer trip that would make, it would delay us at least another month – if we’re lucky. There is very little to the south, one or two deserted islands, pretty barren. Going East from here is just a waste of time, and we could spend a year making our way back around that way. West is probably our best bet.” The navigator’s hand drifts, and her slender finger touches a dark mass on the map, the Red Line. 

Zoro’s eyes twitch.

“There are several ports that connect with East Blue on this side, and while there is always a risk of a Marine presence, I’m pretty sure we’ll be alright to dock just one day so we can go shopping.” She glances at Luffy, “Since you’re all pretty tough.” She winks. 

“Yea! The Red Line! I’ve never even seen it before!”

“This is the only way, huh?” Even Sanji looks up in mild surprise at the deadened tone uttered by Former Pirate Hunter Roronoa Zoro. “I mean, there’s no place better?” 

“What’s wrong with the Red Line?” Nami asks, raising an eyebrow. “They’ll have everything we need, and in large quantities. I’ve got enough beli to get us stored up…” her voice falters at the Swordsman’s reaction, his hand shaking a little on the handle of his white sword. “What’s wrong?” 

“N-nothing.” Zoro says, turning away from the table. “I’m going to take a nap.” 

“What’s got the Marimo so upset?” Sanji asks as the door the cabin swings closed. 

Usopp scratches the end of his long nose. “He said he’s been there before, the Red Line.” He tells everyone at the table. “Seemed pretty… ah… not exactly scared, but… well… not too happy to be so close to it.” 

“Eh?” Luffy laughed, thumping his sniper on the back. Smile big stretched from ear to ear, and bright as it always is. “What’s Zoro got to be scared of? He’s strong!” 

Nami stares back down at the map, grinning, because her captain’s elation is contagious. “It’s our best bet, without simply doubling back to Cocoyasi Village.” She doesn’t really want to go back to her hometown so soon, it would just be too embarrassing after her rather flashy departure two days ago. 

“We’ll be fine!” Luffy announces. “Let’s go! To the Red Line!” 

XXX

Zoro watches the dark swirling water lapping against the ship’s hull. There’s a tingle of green to it, bits of shredded kelp, almost the same shade of his face, marked with obvious apprehension. He’s sweating through his shirt and his shoulders keep shaking, even if he keeps telling Usopp and Sanji he’s perfectly fine – so stop friggin’ asking! – East Blue meets the Red Line in a sweeping curve, and the ground is almost level with the ocean in many places. Along these places huge port towns have developed. Ships of all sizes moored along endless rows of docks and peers that stretch out half a kilometer into the surf. They can see the lights of the nearest cluster of civilization – but it’s the middle of the night, and Nami thinks it’s better to drop anchor next to a crop of rocks a ways from it, at least until morning when they can determine a good place to dock their little pirate ship. Even at this distance Zoro can hear the sounds of people drifting across the otherwise slight waves. People laughing, shouting, drinking maybe. 

He shivers. 

“Oi, Zoro?” 

The swordsman suddenly realizes that Luffy is at his shoulder, nose about half an inch from his left ear, staring at him with big brown eyes. “Oi!” he pushes his captain back. “Don’t stare at me like that! what do you want?” 

“What’s Zoro mean, what do I want?” Luffy admonishes, and his look is immediately, suddenly serious for the usually happily-clueless boy. “Whacha afraid of?” he asks.

Usopp and Sanji are turning the catspan to lower the ship’s anchor into the shallows, and Nami is up on the second level checking a map against her brass compass. The night air, cool on the swordsman’s skin. Zoro looks down at Luffy, his captain is not blinking, staring determinedly back at him. 

“What the hell do you mean, afraid?” he hisses to the younger pirate. “I’m not fucking afraid of anything.” 

Luffy snorts. Turning away and crossing his arms on the rail, leaning his chin against them as he glares across the water. “Everybody’s afraid of something.” He says. 

The swordsman’s hand brushes against his one solitary sword at his hip. He panics a little. It doesn’t feel good – just one sword. “We’ll be gone in a day, even if I am afraid, which I’m not.” He tells Luffy, leaning his back against the rail next to him. “Why, you going to hold my hand or something?” 

“I would.” Luffy says. 

Zoro swallows. 

“I would, if I’d help.” Luffy’s red vest billows as wind pushes across the water and over their ship, and his straw hat rustles. “But I know it won’t.” he laughs, and Zoro’s more confused that he’s laughing then at what he’s just said. 

“Oi, you shitheads better hurry up! Dinner’s ready.” Sanji shouts from the second level, Nami’s hand held gingerly in his own as he sees her inside. 

“Better get going.” Zoro tells Luffy. 

“Zoro’s not eating?” 

“Not hungry.” 

“Oi?” 

“I’ve got sake.” The swordsman snaps, pushing himself up away from the rail. “I’m fine.” He says, but his shuddering shoulders and unsteady knees tell a very different story to his observant captain. “So get your rubbery ass in there for dinner. I’ll take watch.” 

XXX

The Strawhat captain is unusually quite as he sits down with Sanji, Nami, and Usopp at the bench table. None of them asks where Zoro is, because he’s already told them he was taking first watch. Poking at his dinner of rice and beans unenthusiastically before taking a bite, it takes Luffy a while to make his dry mouth chew, and it’s so hard to swallow that he drinks a whole glass of water to manage it. 

“…don’t have much information about the port town we’re directly in front of, but it says here it’s not got any Marine outpost, so it’s as good a place as any.” Nami was telling them between mouthfuls. Sanji and Usopp nodding, paying her their full attention. “I’ve got enough beli to get us at least fifty pounds of meat, and Sanji-kun, if you want to make a list of anything else you need I’m sure we can find it. It’s a pretty large place, Portulija.” 

Luffy crosses his knife and fork on his plate with a vague clack, not able to take another bite. 

“ ‘s wrong, Luffy?” Usopp asks with his cheeks stuffed to bursting with rice. Having too often had his meals taken away by the rubber man because he hasn’t eaten fast enough has caused an almost unconscious need to inhale anything eatable that’s placed in front of him. “ ‘ know it’s no’ meat, but you gotta be hun’ery.” 

“He’s scared.” Luffy says, gazing across the room at nothing.

“Eh? Who?” Sanji asks, pouring Nami another glass of water. 

“Zoro.” Luffy says simply. 

Sanji sputters a little for laughing. “The shitty Marimo? He’s not scared of anything!” 

Luffy doesn’t join in the cook’s mirth, and his stoic expression is a little creepy. 

“Oi?” Sanji chuckles, genuinely unnerved. “I mean… common? Him?” 

“Him.” Luffy says. “He’s scared.” 

XXX

Curled up in the crow’s nest, Roronoa Zoro twists and pulls the cap from a third sake bottle, upending its contents into his mouth, swallowing desperately as he hopes to reach the blessed moment when he’ll simply pass out. If he can make himself sick enough to be left behind tomorrow, great! He can just stay on the boat. “Shit…” He mutters, because after emptying the third bottle his hand is still relatively steady. His alcohol tolerance is too good for the cheap sake they’ve been stocked with. He eyes the other two bottles he’s brought up with him, and reaches for another. 

He’s not sure why he’s not telling the crew about what he knows about the Red Line… He’s not even sure if this is the same town where it happened, or if something like what happened to him happens everywhere – or if it was just a one-time incident never to be repeated and half of his brain is telling him he’s slowly driving himself into a panic over nothing.

No. He runs his fingers through the short green bristles on his head. Those guys were pros, no way they hadn’t – hadn’t had experience before he showed up in the wrong place at the wrong time. He shivers from head to foot, tipping back his fourth bottle of sake and gulping down the burning liquor as if he is a man dying of thirst and this is the sweetest water in the world. 

“Zoro shouldn’t drink like that.” 

For the second time tonight Zoro finds himself face to face – and right in his face – with his young captain. The sixteen-year-old boy is staring at him with those huge brown eyes. He hadn’t made a sound climbing the rigging or getting into the rickety crow’s nest… or maybe Zoro really is drunk and was too hammered to have noticed. 

“You done eating already?” Voice isn’t slurring, the swordsman observes, Shit! not drunk at all. 

Luffy doesn’t answer, he just settles back against the opposite side of the encircling wooden structure and sits down. It’s a tight fit for the two of them, and their feet touch around the thin spike of mast that protrudes between them. Jolly Roger flapping in the slight breeze above their heads. 

“Tell me about the Red Line?” Luffy asks, hitching a smile onto his face that to the swordsman seems rather forced. 

“What?” 

“Zoro said he’s been there, Usopp told us so! So tell me about it. I’ve never been there.” 

The swordsman’s hand reaches for his katana’s hilt, not to draw the white blade, but just… to hold it. “Not much to tell.” He tells his captain. 

“That’s a lie.” Luffy says, cracking his knuckles, then his rubbery neck. “Zoro wouldn’t be this freaked out if there weren’t something.” 

“Told you, I’m not freaked out.” 

“Zoro said he wasn’t afraid, even if he’s shaking all over like Usopp does when he’s gatta be brave… he doesn’t come to dinner, instead he sits up here and drinks twice the sake he usually does?” Luffy nudges the empty glass bottles with his foot, and there’s a faint tink as they knock against each other. “Zoro’s lying.” The captain observes his swordsman from just under the brim of his straw hat, with most of his face in shadow. Now he’s not smiling, he’s leering. 

“The fuck do you care?” Zoro spits at the younger pirate. 

“You’re my Nakama!” Luffy shouts at him, and for a moment his voice is like a white flash in Zoro’s head. “Of course I care.” 

All at once, as if that flash shook lose the horrid memories Zoro had repressed for almost an entire year, it all came back to him, the unique shape and form of the dark docks becoming disturbingly familiar. His eyes go wide. “We gatta get out of here!” he gasps, but before Luffy can ask why, there really is a flash – a red flash of fire and the unmistakable reek of burnt powder. Merry sways and tips. Salty spray washes over the rail as the whole ship is pulled down against the surface of the sea. Before they hit the surface Zoro’s fist latches down hard in Luffy’s vest and he hangs on for all his life. But the splash of water never comes. Zoro’s head connects with a wooden deck, and a vicious steel toed boot meets between his eyes. Another white hot flash snaps the swordsman’s head back, and he’s blacked out.


	2. Bodies Don't Sink Against the Red Line

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While the rest of the crew frantically searches for their missing captain and swordsman, Zoro cannot bring himself to hope for a rescue - because none had come the last time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***I do not own One Piece, and all credit belongs to the Brilliant Eiichiro Oda***

Zoro hates blacking out, whether it be from a blow to the head, or drinking too much, or not eating for too many days or weeks, or over training, or excessive blood loss… now that he thinks about it, there are entirely too many goddamn ways to be rendered unconscious… but the worst part of it isn’t the going under, it’s waking up not know where he is or how long it’s been. Judging by the way his hands and feet are cold and numb, it’s been a while, at least a few hours. The rest… well… it’s all so horribly familiar. 

The swordsman’s been disarmed and stripped, trussed up naked on an X of timbers with his wrists and ankles belted down. There’s a decided draft across his backside, and he knows that he’s exposed, too exposed for comfort. He can’t see, but he knows that’s because he’s got something over his eyes, and he can’t speak because he’s got something crammed into his mouth. All he can do is shift uncomfortably, hoping he can free one of his limbs, but he knows… he knows he’s been restrained far too efficiently for that. 

Have the rest of the crew been captured too? He wonders wildly, has Luffy? Nami? Usopp? That damn swirly eyebrow? Hope of rescue doesn’t feel very likely, so he doesn’t want to think about it. Last time they just let him go… but it had taken a while… A long while… 

“Well - well, look at this?” 

Zoro’s heart pounds hard enough to bruise his ribcage. Oh god. He knows that voice. Oh god… no!

“Roronoa Zoro… and now he’s got a friend?” 

The swordsman struggles against his restraints, because now he can hear shuffling from across the room, and whining peels as the young captain tries to chew through his gag. He knows that muffled sound, because it’s the sound he made himself when he first came here. This den of torture. 

“Oh, we can’t have that.” Fingers click, and the crack of a whip rips the air. Luffy’s cry of pain is sharp and loud, but thankfully not repeated. Zoro’s blindfold is removed, and he claps eyes on that face he’s tried so hard to forget. He doesn’t know the man’s name, but he’ll always remember the face. Yellow rotting teeth between dark lips, filthy black hair, great ugly tattoo down his chin, and two dark eyes staring from behind a black mask that only comes halfway down his face. “Did you tell him, mmm, about your last visit to Portulija?” the man asks, catching Zoro’s chin between thumb and forefinger to make him watch as his people remove Luffy’s blindfold. The swordsman can see the whip lash on his captain’s abdomen – red and angry and already starting to swell, drops of blood seeping from it to drip down the young pirate’s naked thighs. “Did you think you’d be safe this time?” the man asks, giving Zoro a little shake. 

Luffy’s eyes narrow as he sees the ugly man touching his first mate’s face, and he starts to wriggle and strain, making angry noises through his nose and trying to shout through his gag.

Don’t, Sencho! Zoro wants to scream, they’ll whip you again! Or drown you, or, or, oh god, SENCHO! 

“Seems we’ve got a slow learner here!” Barks the ugly man, his lips twisting into a crooked smile and he wraps his whip around one hand. Drawing his arm back and then forward again with a resounding crack that falls across Luffy’s hip bone, prompting another scream and more drops of bright red blood to ooze out of the raised welt left by the cruel leather. “You’ll be still, or you’ll go first, eh?” 

Luffy glared back at the ugly man, breathing heavily through his nose, teeth bared around his gag. Wondering what hell he means by ‘first’.

“It’s been a long time, Roronoa Zoro.” The ugly man saunters back across the room towards the green haired pirate. Two other forms appear, faces covered in dark masks and these cover their full faces. Luffy watches as they adjust the planks Zoro’s tethered to, so that he’s lowered and bent almost in half. The ugly man runs a hand over his swordsman’s back and the captain sees his green eyes go wide in knowing terror. 

Don’t look, Sencho! Zoro’s screaming inside his head, but when he looks, he can see Luffy’s eyes are wide. 

“Do you think your friend can save you?” the ugly man asks, mistaking the panicked glace between the swordsman and his captain as a cry for help. “Thirty… Million… Beli.” He says, punctuating his words with deceptively gentile strokes across the back of the swordsman’s neck, looking at the dark haired boy with a twisted smile. “Defeated the Merman Arlong, The Great Don Crieg, that four-eyed Captain Kuro, even picked a fight with Buggy…” Zoro can’t hold back the startled gasp of pain and revulsion that escapes from around his gag as the ugly man thrusts two dry fingers into his body, immediately scissoring him apart. “Such a bounty, here on the weakest of seas.” A vicious twist and a shudder runs through the swordsman along with a sharp strangled cry. “We’re not so naïve, here on the Red Line, Monkey D Luffy.” 

Luffy watches in helpless disgust mixed with hot nauseating hatred as the ugly man bears down on his swordsman, Zoro’s back arching as he jolts and struggles. The captain’s straining again, but his arms won’t stretch, his legs as heavy as iron weights. He hangs limp for a moment, trying to catch his breath because it feels like he’s drowning. 

“That’s Kairoseki, keeping you tied to those planks.” The ugly man crows, watching the suffocating confusion on the dark haired pirate’s face. “You’re weaker than a normal man now, with that stone pressed up against you. I’m surprised you’re still awake! But… since you are,” Zoro screams again as another two fingers press into his body, and Luffy sees blood. The rubber man is struggling again, straining at his gag, fingers and toes flexing and twitching as his swordsman is abused right before his eyes. The ugly man pulls his hand free of Zoro, eyes fixed on the struggling captain with his wide young glare full of seething fire. “Seems you are pretty close,” he taunts, spearing blood over the swordsman’s lower back. “To make such a fuss over one crewmate.” 

The masked and hooded figures are back, two standing in front of Luffy, and four unbuckling Zoro from his restraints. The swordsman is shivering under waves of pain, and his captors promptly restrain him to several hooks protruding from the floor. Soon he is on his hands and knees, still gagged, in chains. The two figures in front of Luffy unfurl whips edged with metal barbs that flash in the light. 

The ugly man is laughing, pulling himself free of his clothes and fondling himself into a rigid spear. “That head’s valuable, so remember, leave it nice and clean for the Marines.” He tells his people. Luffy isn’t listening to that, he’s more concerned with what the ugly man is doing, reaching forward to pull his swordsman’s hips up, up to his… Zoro screams as he’s brutally entered, the ugly man pounding into him. His captain’s eyes burning as his first mate is taken from behind, he doesn’t even feel it when deep cuts and new welts start to form across his skin from whip lashes falling like rain. Sprays of blood drop red on the concrete in front of him as the barbs catch and rip his flesh. He just holds onto Zoro with his eyes, and Zoro is staring back at him. 

We’re going to kill them. Luffy tells Zoro without words. But the swordsman’s weeping, being torn apart by the same man who did the same thing to him not a year before. The memory of it all so clear in his mind… the smell of the room… the lights… the whips cracking through the air. All of it so distressingly familiar and once again real. 

Sencho!!!

XXX

“This guy! here in the picture! And another man, green hair and three earrings!” Nami shows Luffy’s wanted poster to a barkeep in town, voice ringing with urgency. “They were taken last night! Please, if you know anything…” 

“Sorry, babe.” He says. Placing a bag of meat that she’s just purchased in front of her. “Never seen ‘em before.” 

Sanji and Usopp have been scouring the coastline for two hours already, trying to find a ship that matches the vague glimpse they got last night. They saw Zoro’s white shirt in the dark as the ship jetted away from Merry. Their ship, luckily, had righted itself once the tethers were released from the sloop that tipped her. Luffy’s hat they had found in the water off the port side. Sanji dove into to retrieve it, and has been carrying it around ever since as they searched for their missing crewmates. 

“How can they hide a ship like that?” Sanji gritted his teeth together, glowering from one peer to the next. It had been a large flat vessel, much too awkward for sailing into open water, more likely a loading or moving barge. Short distance conveyance… but none of the docks seemed to be housing anything even remotely like the one he saw. 

“Find anything?!” Nami called as she rushed up to her two nakama in the street. They were drawing a lot of attention to themselves, but didn’t care. They had to find Zoro and Luffy. The fact that they hadn’t managed to escape on their own had the redhead extremely concerned. 

“Oi, Niisan.” An tiny old woman dressed in rags addressed Nami, pulling at her shirt. “You aren’t from around here, are you?” Nami shook her head. The woman smiled without any teeth. She was scarred and pale skinned, wrinkled eyes almost all the way closed as she leaned on a knobby stick. “This is no place for young, pretty pirates.” She told the redhead. 

“How did you know we were pirates?” Nami asks. 

The old woman chuckled. “This is no place for young, pretty marines either.” A few of the townspeople threw them dirty looks as they passed, but seemed rather reluctant to get too close. “What did the ship look like, the one that took your friends?” she asks them. 

“Flat, like a dock, but not attached to anything.” Sanji told the old woman. Usopp nodding vigorously at his shoulder. 

The old woman thought for a moment. “Try the south end, against the cliff.” She tells them. 

“There aren’t any docks at that end.” Usopp says, peering away along the crimson rocks. 

“No, there aren’t!” the toothless woman laughed. “You aren’t looking for a dock, you’re looking for bodies.” She cackled. 

Sanji turned white, and Nami put a hand over her mouth. 

“Bodies don’t sink against the Red Line like they do out in the open sea.” The woman said. “If you hurry, you’ll be able to find a way in before the bodies of your friends float there too.”


	3. All They Need to Know

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The torture continues, and the search carries on. Sanji admits it's hard to kill using just kicks while Nami places down a sword. Usopp lends a shoulder, and Luffy and Zoro begin to understand.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***I do not own One Piece, and all credit belongs to the Brilliant Eiichiro Oda***

Hours, days, years? It felt like forever. Zoro was taken by the ugly man, and half a dozen other masked bastards before he was allowed to throw himself down on the cold floor. The swordsman gasped and cried, dripping in expelled fluids. His elbows and knees ripped open and bloody from their continued contact with coarse concrete floor. Luffy’s skin looked like hamburger, a pool of his own sticky blood in front of him. 

“That’s it for today!” the ugly man announced to his masked people, and they left their prisoners still tied and chained. The only difference was that the ugly man removed their gags, and they were allowed to speak to each other, he says, they should talk to each other, so Zoro can tell his captain how this will all end. 

 

“Zoro?” Luffy says, once he’s sure all the ugly man’s people are gone. 

The swordsman is doubled up, clutching himself as best he can. His forehead pressed down on the concrete floor. “S-sencho…” 

Luffy tried again to move his limbs, to get free, but the Kairoseki draining is strength is keeping him docile and weak. “Gonna kick their asses!” he gasped, spitting and struggling, even if it is useless. After a while he stops straining and just hangs there like a cloth doll. “Zoro knows that ugly man?” 

The swordsman inhales, pressing his forehead harder against the floor. “Yea.” He admits. 

“He’s why Zoro didn’t want to come to the Red Line.” Luffy guesses. 

Zoro lifts his head, nodding without looking up at his captain. “I didn’t realize this was the same fucking town though. The same… the same place…” His breath was catching in his throat, and he gasped, vomiting violently. “Shit!” he coughs, rolling away from the mess, but not able to go very far. 

“Zoro! Oi! We’re gonna be okay!” Luffy tells him, because he can’t stand to see Zoro like this, chained up and bleeding, panicking like this. “Nami and Usopp and Sanji! They’ll come for us!” 

“They…” Zoro bites down on his lip. It’s the one thing he hasn’t told his captain yet. He doesn’t want to tell him, but…

“What is it, Zoro?” Luffy asks, eyes wide. “Tell me!” 

“When I came here, on a ship… lots of us… but, when they took me – when they took the ones they wanted.” His arms shook as he pulled and pulled on his chains. Luffy saw skin tear at his nakama’s wrists, fresh blood spilling out over the back of his hands. “They don’t leave survivors!” 

XXX

Nami scans the dark surf just as the sun is going down. Sanji and Usopp guiding Merry carefully along the Red Line just feet from the jagged rock. 

“You think that old lady was telling the truth?” Usopp calls from where he’s pulling back on the sail line. 

“Donno, but it was our only lead!” Sanji’s voice echoes against the cliff wall. “Nami-san? Do you see anything?” 

The Navigator leans almost far enough across the railing to fall over it, and was about to answer back that she doesn’t see anything when suddenly she’s met with a truly horrific sight. Bloated grey bodies, naked and turning in the surf, shredded ropes of skin clinging from blue muscle, torn from constant buffeting against the rocky cliff behind. Scales of carnivorous fish and the shine from fins flash in the moonlight as the sea life fed on the decaying humans. There are hundreds of them, and the smell. Oh god, the smell! Nami claps a hand over her mouth and nose as she recoils back onto the deck, but she can still smell it. It reaches Sanji and Usopp, and both boys know they’ve found the place. 

Without knowing exactly what they’re looking for Nami insists on anchoring Merry against the Red Line just past the point where the shredded bodies are thickest. Usopp will remain on board, while she and Sanji climb the cliff face looking for anything resembling an entrance. 

“There has to be some kind of hidden door in the rock.” Nami says, determination heavy in her voice. “We have to find them.” 

Sanji can’t get the smell of rotting human decay out of his nose, not even with a lit cigarette in his mouth. “Fucking bastards.” He growls. 

“If we don’t come back by morning, Usopp –” Nami’s hands are shaking as she coils rope around one arm. 

“I’ll come looking for you.” The sniper tells her. He’s trembling too, but his eyes are set. “We’re going to sail out of this place and never come back. Zoro was… Zoro was scared, and he’s the bravest man I know…” 

Sanji takes Luffy’s hat off his head and hands it to Usopp, who clutches it tightly. “We’ll be back before dawn.” He tells the sniper, taking Nami’s hand. Soon the two of them climb down onto the sharp rocks of the Red Line Cliff, hands wrapped in cloth to help them move like crabs along the sides without being torn up. Usopp watches them until they’re hidden by darkness. The night is quiet but for the constant water rushing into the cracks and gullies of sharp stone. Be careful. The Sniper prays. He prays, because there’s nothing else he can think of. 

XXX

“How did Zoro get away?” Luffy asks Zoro. It’s been a while, and both of them are fighting the urge to fall asleep; because neither of them wants to wake up to what they’ve just experienced. “The last time… how did Zoro escape?” 

Zoro gives a hollow, empty laugh. “They thought I was gonna die, and I wasn’t… th-they got bored.” He looks over at his captain. “When one of their toys dies, they pitch them out into the water. There’s so many bodies out there, rolling and grinding against the Red Line… I thought I was gonna be blended up into fish food… but I got pushed out on some current… floated for a while, a day… maybe longer.” He swallowed hard, and Luffy could hear him. “Got picked up… got away.” He laughs again. “Lucky… but… now… now I’m back. He must love that I’m telling you this. I bet he thinks it’s so fucking funny.” There’s a sob in Zoro’s voice that Luffy heart aches to hear. He wants to take it away. Has to stop it. 

“When we get out of here, we’re going to talk.” Luffy tells Zoro. “We’re going to talk about this.” 

Zoro looks up at Luffy’s determined eyes. His captain is not afraid, he can see it. He can almost hang onto that strength as if the younger man is extending it out for him to take hold of. 

“We’re going to talk about Zoro, and what he knows. Because if Zoro knows things like this, I need to know. We’re going to LISTEN to Zoro, like we should’ve before!” 

His captain’s wild face is stretched, despite his devil’s fruit ability being restrained, and he’s nearly shouting. 

“Luffy…” 

There’s a sound just out of sight, and both swordsman and captain flinch, eyes drawn to the darkness where the ugly man and his people departed from. It continues, a faint clicking from shoes or sandals or both. Whispering voices… 

“… shitty bastards should have kept a watch…” 

“… saw one get away, we need to hurry…” 

“…comes back I’ll gut him….” 

Luffy’s leaning forward against his restraints. It hurts a lot, but he’s not overly paying attention, he… he thinks he recognizes… 

“Oi, there’s a light over there, c’mon!” 

From around the corner Sanji’s blond hair and curled eyebrow come into view. He’s got a long knife in one hand, and it’s covered in blood. Nami is at his shoulder, clutching the white-scabbarded sword that Zoro never goes anywhere without. The redhead smiles when she sees Luffy, but it’s immediately wiped from her face as the full impact of her nakama’s presence sinks into her steadily widening eyes. 

“Holy shit.” Sanji mutters, letting the knife slip from his fingers to clatter to the concrete floor. 

Zoro’s looking at them, he’s barely breathing – part of him believes he’s accidently fallen asleep and might well be dreaming. 

“Nami! Sanji!” Luffy’s struggling at his restraints again. “Hurry!” he calls. 

Sanji rushes to his captain, unbuckling the tight belts lined with sea-stone. Once Luffy’s free he rushes to Zoro. Nami is already kneeling next to the swordsman, a hand on his damp shoulder as he shakes and mutters stammered ‘thanks’ and ‘how can this be real’ and ‘must be a dream’. She has tears in her eyes as she watches his body quivering, and the blood smears and bruises across his back and thighs and buttocks clear enough to make obvious his abuse. 

Luffy, unrestrained by the Sea Stone, is suddenly riveted with violent energy, and promptly slams two fists into the concrete floor where the anchored chain-loops are tying his swordsman. The chains rattle away, bent links littering the floor. They’d remove the shackles later, after they’ve gotten back to the ship. The young captain is bleeding and naked, but he’s very much awake and determined. Gently he takes his wounded swordsman under one arm, helping him to his feet, and Zoro is in too much physical and metal pain to object. Sanji and Nami lead their two nakama back along the rock wall a short distance to Merry. They are not followed for challenged. Once aboard they set sail away from the Red Line in the dark dead of night without looking back. 

XXX

Usopp carefully picks the lock of Zoro’s manacles as the green haired pirate sits across from him at the table with a sheet draped over his body. Luffy is beside him, his own sheet tied around his waist. Blood is trickling from the open cuts on their captain’s chest, but he doesn’t care, he doesn’t seem to even notice. He doesn’t speak as the sniper clicks off the first cuff from Zoro’s bleeding wrist. 

“Found a way in quick.” Sanji was explaining, absent mindedly chopping vegetables – more for his own nerves than anything. Also as a way for him to keep his eyes away from his wounded nakama. “Shitty bastards were talking and laughing and playing fucking cards and drinking. Talking loudly enough about getting a good payoff on Luffy’s head that we knew we were in the right place.” Usopp placed the open cuff aside as Zoro reached his other arm across the table. The sniper took hold of the back of his nakama’s hand gingerly, inserting a bent wire into the gap in the metal to pick at the lock. “Nami-san and I listed for about five minutes… long enough to get sick of hearing them talk.” Sanji stubs out his cigarette, immediately pulling out a fresh one and lighting it. “They were weak as shit. Slicing ‘em up was easy enough.” 

“Thought…” Zoro’s voice croaked, and Usopp’s hand twitched before refocusing on his task. “Th-thought you fight with your feet?” the swordsman asks. 

Sanji continued to chop and add things to the boiling pot on the stove. “It’s hard to kill people with kicks.” The cook says. “When I saw a set of knives lying so accessible...” The cook’s voice lowers to a growl, and he chops through a head of cabbage with a loud clunk. “There’s a special place in hell for shitty bastards like them.” 

Nami pushes open the door and slowly comes into the room. Sharing a small, but reassuring smile with Luffy, she sat down next to Usopp as the sniper struggled with the lock on Zoro’s cuff. “We’re heading directly east.” She tells them softly. “Might take a week, but there is a region of ocean with a cluster of uninhabited islands. I-I thought we could use the rest.” Her captain nods, but Zoro’s not paying attention. He’s looking at her hands. The navigator is still clutching his white katana, and he’s trying to decide if he is okay with it. 

Following the green haired pirate’s gaze, Nami pointedly placed the white scabbarded sword carefully on the table so that Zoro can see that it’s safe. “I found it in their room.” She tells him. The swordsman nods. 

A metallic scrape and a click later and Zoro is free of the cold steel around his wrist. Like his other hand, this one is bleeding freshly, the skin all red and angry. The swordsman runs a finger across his damaged skin, and Luffy’s stomach does an uncomfortable roll when he sees his lips twitching with just a vague trace of pain – because he knows his nakama is using every bit of strength he has to keep from breaking down completely. He puts a bloody hand on Zoro’s back. 

“Let’s go get Zoro cleaned up.” Luffy says gently. 

The older pirate doesn’t argue, just pulls his legs over the bench as his captain helps him to his feet. 

Sanji stirs the pot on the stove, smoke billowing around his downturned face. He’s got tears in his eyes, but damned if he’s going to show that kind of thing to his captain and that shitty Marimo. Luffy guides his first mate across the room and out the door in silence, and Nami looks on. She had never expected Luffy to ever become so serious and quiet. Almost as if he was another person that traded his skin. 

Usopp repacks his lock-picking kit, and looks up to see Nami’s shaken face, bloodless hands in front of her on the table. He pulls the redhead into a tight embrace where they sit on the bench. Sanji hears her softly sob into the sniper’s shoulder and drags on his cigarette, for once not jealous of someone else comforting his Nami-swan. He doesn’t care who comforts anyone else on the ship right now. All that matters is that they get as far away as they can from the Red Line. After what they heard, after those shitty – after discovering that these weren’t the only group who operated along the Red Line, and that the Marines are fully aware of their business practices… He never wants to go back there again. 

XXX

Steam billows along the tiled ceiling, and warm water hisses as the Captain of the Strawhat pirates adjusts the temperature before helping Zoro out of his sheet and onto the low bench. The swordsman’s legs submerged in warm water. Zoro winces for the pain in his spine and lower back as he puts his shoulders back on the smooth wall of Merry’s Bath. His captain then begins to gently scrub away the blood and the vomit, strong hands moving methodically without a word. It was only one day, Zoro reasons, the last time it had been weeks, maybe many weeks. He remembered how badly he had hurt for months after, recovering on the ship that rescued him. He had not known anyone on board, and their suspicious eyes had made him feel, if anything, more afraid and helpless. He closed his eyes, allowing his captain to continue his meticulous and delicate ministrations. Inside he sighed with relief; he and Luffy had been rescued before the worst of the torture could begin. 

“Idiot cook and Nami really came through.” He said as Luffy brought down the shower wand across his chest, spraying away soap suds with the warm water. 

“They did.” Luffy agreed, smiling happily. He had not cleaned himself yet, and Zoro reached forward to place a hand on his captain’s torn and bloody chest. 

It stung, Zoro’s touch, but Luffy did not shy away. Instead he inhaled through clenched teeth, and Zoro’s eyes flicked anxiously up at him. “I’m sorry.” He said. 

“Shi shi, for what?” 

“I should have told you, told everyone…” 

The rubber man placed the wand back in its holder and took his swordsman’s face in his hands. Sharing into his eyes he leaned in close, and kissed him. 

Zoro felt his heart jump, and he wanted to push Luffy off, but at the same time he felt he was truly safe being held in those hands. Sinking into his captain he let the rubber man press closer, and when Luffy’s tongue came out to wander over his lower lip, he parted them to allow access. Slowly the two young pirates tasted each other until their breath synced, and when Luffy was breathing in Zoro was breathing out. Luffy lowered himself to sit on the edge of the tub, gentle warm spray falling across his shoulders, and blood washed down the drain at their feet. 

“Sencho?” Zoro breathes, as they break their first kiss. “You said… we were going to talk?” 

Luffy’s fingers traced over the still healing scar on Zoro’s chest, from where his swordsman was cut by the shichibukai Dracule Mihawk not even a week before. The wound had reopened in one or two places, the stiches loosened from the abuse by the ugly man. He leaned forward to lick at a weeping edge, and his green haired nakama crooned, leaning gently against him. “We will, but later.” Luffy told him, bleeding fingers splaying out across his swordsman’s muscular flanks, reaching for his back to massage much aggravated bruised tissue. 

Zoro didn’t quite understand what was happening, or why he was letting it happen, and as he looked down at Luffy’s slack and slightly disbelieving face, watching his own hands working Zoro’s torn muscles and pale flesh, he was sure the younger boy had no idea either. He was just… 

“Is this okay?” Luffy asked, his hands sliding back to rest in the crooks of Zoro’s legs, thumbs close to, but not quite touching his sex. “This…”

“Do you think it’s okay, Sencho?” Zoro asked, and he felt his cheeks flush, but he can blame that on the warmth of the air around them.

Luffy slowly nods, not meeting Zoro’s eyes. “It’s good… it feels right.” The younger man’s hands starting to move again, to touch and wander. 

Zoro’s aching muscles started to relax, soothed by his captain’s kneading fingers as he continued to work his way along the various places his swordsman had been beaten and bloodied. Luffy watching his face closely for signs of discomfort, knowingly adjusting pressure and pace at the slightest hike or twitch on his green haired nakama’s neck, eyes, cheeks, or anywhere he could see. 

“Luffy?” Zoro gasped, because his lungs have started to push air more rapidly in and out of his body . “Are… you…” his voice caught in his throat, and he didn’t want to say any more. 

“Zoro needs to relax more.” Luffy tells him, hands drifting to the green haired man’s abdomen, careful not to disturb the bottom portion of the diagonal scar neatly dividing his chest. He holds his hands there, lightly touching Zoro’s skin, the pads of his splayed fingers conscious to the rate of the other man’s breath. “I grew up on an island with a big town on it.” Luffy said, “I didn’t ever live in that town – didn’t ever want to, either. My brothers and me, we lived with mountain bandits – because they owed my grandpa a favor… Her name was Dadan…” Luffy smiled, “The leader of the group we stayed with. She was a nice, even if she was a mountain bandit… other groups weren’t so nice.” Luffy’s hand shook a little on Zoro’s stomach, and the swordsman pressed his own over his captain’s. “I learned a lot about… bad stuff…” Luffy breathed. “Bad… bad things… done by bad people… done to other people.” His brown eyes drifted up and into Zoro’s. Both men held still, sharing a hauntingly powerful connection that neither felt able or willing to describe. “That was bad stuff… Bad stuff Zoro’s seen and felt before.” Now Zoro’s hands are shaking too, as he holds tight to his captain. “I don’t wanna let Zoro feel like that anymore.” Luffy whispers, leaning forward to place warm and gentle lips on his swordsman’s skin, and the older pirate allows it.


	4. For His Swordsman

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rescued and safe, Nami decides the crew should be allowed to rest - a deserted island in a safe corner of East Blue is the perfect place. Zoro and Luffy find themselves alone, and the captain decides it time he showed his swordsman that he really is in safe hands.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***I do not own One Piece. All credit belongs to the brilliant Eiichiro Oda***

A few days after Luffy and Zoro had been rescued from the bounty hunters at the Red Line, they are both nearly healed. Zoro is able to sit in his customary position – propped up sleeping with his white katana on the deck next to him. Luffy, meanwhile, is cross legged on Merry’s figurehead or bouncing around like an idiot talking about food and adventure and being the future Pirate King. Sanji, Nami, and Usopp haven’t spoken one word about the Red Line, the bodies, or what happened at all – preferring to push the incident back into the darkest most least-visited corner of their minds until the details degrade and fade entirely. They won’t go back that way, and that’s all they need to know. 

“Hiy! Nami-swan!” Sanji swoons, bending low on one knee to present his mellorine with a glass of mikan juice freshly squeezed from the fruit produced in the small grove of trees the navigator brought with her from her deceased mother, Bell-mere’s, orchard. 

Nami lowers her newspaper, accepting the juice with a wink. “Thank you, Sanji-kun.” The cook melts into rapturous exclamations of appreciation at the redhead’s words, noodling as hearts practically float around him. 

“Love-Cook.” Mumbles a half-asleep Zoro, dozing a few feet away. 

Luffy and Usopp both burst into unrestrained laughter as Sanji growls at the swordsman, flashing kicks like a peacock. Soon the two are up and exchanging blows – though neither managing to cause any real injury to the other, and when Luffy rolls down onto the deck beside their sniper – laughing and beating his fists on the wooden planks– and Nami smiles, feeling things are finally back to normal. 

“Oi, oi!” Usopp gasps, wiping his eyes and pointing over Luffy’s shoulder. “Island!” 

The Strawhat captain almost bursts apart with excitement, stretching out one hand to rocket himself back atop his special seat on Merry’s figurehead. “Ohhhyooooaaaa!” 

In the distance a wide expanse of land reaches up and out of sight, golden yellow-white sandy beach with a lush green forest behind. According to Nami’s chart – the one she stole during their brief excursion on the Red Line – the many islands in this part of the of East Blue are uninhabited, small, and the waters around them are not often patrolled by Marine ships. Before pursuing their dreams and facing danger on the Grand Line, Nami is hoping for a nice refreshing vacation allowing Luffy and Zoro to completely heal, and possibly gather further ingredients to stock onboard. 

“I thought we were heading straight for Louguetown?” Zoro asks, one hand shading his eyes. 

“No, you’re right.” Nami tells the swordsman, “I thought we could use a vacation before moving on.” 

“Vacation?” 

“Nami-swan is so beautiful when she plans holidays!” Sanji sings as fawns loudly behind the redhead. 

“Barbeque!” Luffy sings, “Beach barbeque! Oi, oi – oi - oi! Can we build a bomb fire? Ne, Nami?” 

“Baka! You’re the Sencho, Sencho – if you want a bomb fire, then I guess we’ll have to have one.” Nami’s smiling, happy to see Luffy so lit up with the prospect of exploring the island. 

Even Zoro’s grinning at the captain’s beaming, elated face – eyes all alight with sparkles. “Aye, sounds like a captain’s order alright.”

XXX

The shallows around the island were clear of rocks and reefs, and Nami was able to lead the Going Merry right up to the soft sand. Sanji and Zoro, with minimal argument, dropped the anchor, and they disembarked with most of the afternoon and evening to spare. The blond cook wasted no time in arranging a make-shift grill, with the help of Usopp, and the two of them were unloading meat and sake as Zoro followed his excited captain up onto the beach. 

“Oi, you two can explore for a while, just don’t get turned around!” Nami called from the ship, waving her hand. 

“Keep a look out for anything eatable too!” Sanji shouts, he and Usopp negotiating the ramp with their arms full of crates and barrels. 

Luffy and Zoro wave before pushing into the undergrowth and plodding under the dense shadow of emerald green trees. There were stars in the captain’s eyes as he looked in every direction. The Swordsman couldn’t stop grinning, to see him so excited. His own internal danger sense was calm, and he felt as safe as could be, unworried about anything. 

After about an hour swimming through thick jungle the two pirates came out into a clearing – bright sunlight stinging their eyes until they adjusted to reveal quite a sight. Green sweeps of grass sloped down into a wide pool of clear blue water, and they could see brightly colored fish turning over and over. Several patches of land stuck up above surface of the water, covered in blue-green moss and yellow flowers and studded with smooth rock. There was a low noisy waterfall on the far side, long vines trailing down to touch the shimmering water from a few large trees with wide tops providing inviting patches of comfortable shade. Luffy rubbed his eyes for the dazzling light, and then simply stood still, staring at the breathtaking place they had found themselves. 

“Wow.” Zoro mused, himself never being one for poetry or other sappy shit, but even he could appreciate a beautiful spot when it stared him right in the face. 

“Common.” Luffy smirks and he took hold of Zoro’s hand, interlacing their fingers. But Zoro didn’t move his feet, and as his captain’s arm stretched out. He looked back. “Oi, Zoro?” 

The swordsman just stood there, staring at his and his captain’s interlocked fingers. 

Luffy came back to his side. “Oi?” 

“Luffy…” Zoro breathed. “eh… should we? er…” He looked away, scratching the back of his head. 

“Zoro’s all red.” Luffy laughed, smiling wide from ear to rubbery ear. 

The swordsman took a long breath. Since that puzzling night in the bath, confused kissing and touching, they had pretty much fallen right back in step with life as it had been. But, if everything was back to normal… “What’s going to happen – with us, I mean?” he chanced, heart hammering. 

Luffy continued to smile, a slight humming sound escaping him. “Donno yet.” He said, “Common, I wanna sit over there with Zoro.” 

The green haired pirate allowed himself to be led across the field then bounced onto one of the little land pillows that dotted the blue lake like an enormous lily pad. It was half shaded by an overhanging tree, not too hot, not too cold. Fresh clean water bubbled all around them, and there was a mild breeze. 

“Yosh!” Luffy exclaimed, casting himself down on a patch of soft cool moss with his hands folded up behind his head. “This is perfect!” 

Zoro stood for a moment, one hand resting on the hilt of his white sword. His heart was still pounding, and he wasn’t quite sure what to do with himself. The ringing in his ears was starting to hurt, and he wondered vaguely if he was going to pass out. 

“Nobody’s going to attack, are they?” Luffy asked, an eye opening a fraction to peer at his first mate. 

“Sorry?” 

Luffy points. “Zoro’s always got his hand on his sword.” The captain says. “Nobody’s around. I can tell. I know Zoro can too, so why’s he all shaky and stuff?” 

The young captain has made of habit of saying things that make Zoro feel a little more exposed than he’d like to be, ever since that moment when Luffy hopped over the fence and declared the swordsman his nakama. That had been weird, but a few hours later when the boy told him he was the only other member of his pirate crew… it had just gotten weirder. He had dealt with it, but soon his captain started not just to point out uncomfortable things, but asking them too. His questions – straightforward and simple, maybe – more often than he would like made the swordsman shiver like a leaf. Partially because answering his captain truthfully would be so very embarrassing. The result being that Zoro found himself wildly trying to think up a half-truth, or even a comparable lie to tell. But it seemed that Luffy, inexplicably, knew that.

“I like Zoro’s body.” Luffy says abruptly, drawing his straw hat over his eyes, leaving only his broad smile exposed. “I wonder if Zoro likes mine?” 

His heart skips again, staring down at Luffy’s prone form, hands behind his head and completely exposing himself to his first mate. Zoro still isn’t quite sure about this situation. Talking about him liking his captain’s body, or his captain liking his body… they were both, well, they were both men… and this kind of thing – it – it’s not normal to like another man’s body, is it? 

“I heard a story once,” Luffy said, “When I was really little… Shanks’ men talking about how sailors enjoy themselves at sea.” 

Zoro’s breath hikes, because he’s heard similar stories – but – but he’s not… is he? 

“I didn’t get it, then – what it was all about. Still don’t really get it – but, I still kinda wonder.” Luffy mutters, “Does Zoro like my body?” 

The swordsman wants to see his captain’s expression, to see if he’s just joking with him. The smile hasn’t changed, but this is Luffy, he smiles all the time. His skin is burning, and even before he’s realized it, the green haired pirate is kneeling beside his captain and removing his white scabbarded katana to place it carefully on the mossy ground before reaching for the straw hat covering his the dark haired pirate’s face. He pulls it up, placing it down just over the other man’s head. Luffy’s eyes are closed, but Zoro can see his cheeks are flushed, and his wide smile wavers just a little. 

“You really want to know?” Zoro asks softly, fingers of one hand brushing Luffy’s bare shoulder, slipping under the open sleeve of his vest just a little. “If I- if I like your body?”

Luffy nods, but still doesn’t open his eyes. 

Zoro can’t speak, because it feels like he’s swallowed a rock and it’s caught somewhere in his windpipe. Gently stroking his captain’s arm, he silently marvels how thin and lean the boy is because Zoro knows how much raw power those limbs are capable of. He’s seen Luffy tear the front of a galleon clean off, break stone masonry with one punch, stop bullets with his strange rubber body… but his arms and legs, his chest, he’s so thin… even the massive amounts of food he eats have not caused any noticeable change in his appearance. He wonders how he feels about that, the slender body under his fingers. He reaches for the gold buttons on Luffy’s red vest, undoing them and parting the light fabric to peer at his chest and abdomen. The skin here is much the same as on his arms. Smooth and tan, with only vague and fading marks from the brutal whipping he had suffered three days ago. Zoro traces the lines of Luffy’s ribs with his fingertips as his captain lays spline on the mossy ground, listening to his captain’s breath pass in and out of his body. The curves of his muscles are faint, and nothing like Zoro’s, which are full and carefully developed, almost chiseled out of rock. He leans in, planting a warm kiss over Luffy’s heart. 

“Yea.” He whispers across his captain’s skin, and Luffy shivers. “I like your body.” Luffy’s lips part, and he makes a noise somewhere between a laugh and a sob. Zoro lies his head down on the younger man’s chest, listening to his heart beating. 

“Ne,” Luffy breathes, fingers reaching over to stroke Zoro’s cheek. “Can I touch Zoro?” 

There’s a hot ball of fire somewhere in the bottom of the swordsman’s stomach as he leans back, head cradled in his captain’s hands as he’s slowly lowered to the ground. Luffy’s tongue darting out to moisten his dry lips, and he’s breathing rapidly. Zoro’s back settles against the mossy ground and he’s suddenly very aware of Luffy’s warmth against his stomach. He’s not sure. Shit! He’s not sure he wants this… especially after what… so soon after… 

“Not gonna hurt Zoro.” Luffy rubs gently against him, “Not gonna let anyone hurt Zoro like that ever again.” The captain’s hands pull at the swordsman’s shirt, and soon manages to lift it over his head, hamaraki to follow, and he’s bare from the waist up. 

“Oi, sencho?” Zoro gasps. “I donno… I… ah?” 

“Mmm.” His captain croons, smile back on his lips as he passes his hands up and down over the tender line of scar tissue still healing. “It’s not supposed to be like that.” And he rubs again, and this time Zoro croons because he’s getting hard, and the younger man his passing his warm body slowly against his need. “Gonna show Zoro what it’s supposed to be like. So he’s gatta relax.” Luffy purrs, consciously biting and worrying the skin on his first mate’s neck. 

Not exactly an easy thing to do, Zoro’s brain spins wildly, and he’s so shocked with every slight and subtle movement his Captain makes that he’s not sure if he can relax. He’s trying so hard to determine what is pain or pleasure or a perfect mixture of both. Luffy kisses his swordsman, their tongues twisting together as the rubber man’s hands roam up and down his chest and tugging gently on his trousers. Zoro carefully removes his captain’s red vest and tosses it to the ground beside the straw hat and his white katana. Time starts to move in a strange way, and it feels like they’ve kissed and tussled on the ground for only a second, when Zoro’s eyes open and he realizes it’s night. 

“Oi?” he gasps, calling this little detail to Luffy’s attention, but his captain isn’t concerned with the time, or the day, or anything beyond the welcome contact with his swordsman, and soon Zoro agrees, nothing matters but touching. He slides off Luffy’s shorts, noticing that the rubber man isn’t wearing anything underneath. He chuckles at this as their lips come together again, and he pulls his captain close, kicking off his boots and allowing Luffy to push down his trousers. When they are both naked, skin washed in the moonlight that vibrates off the smooth surfaces of the lake, they find that despite being outside they feel comfortable and perfectly private. Confident that whatever happens nothing can come between them. 

Luffy is straddling his swordsman, their sexes both pressed together in a comfortable warm way that sends a pleasing trill up Zoro’s spine, and he’s acknowledging to himself that he’s not ever experienced anything like this before. The rubber man leans forward, but instead of further kisses to his swordsman’s lips, he addresses firm pectoral muscles and soft nipples that grow hard almost as soon as he wraps his lips around them. Zoro keens, his back arching and lifting the younger pirate briefly off the ground. 

“Does Zoro like this?” Luffy asks, squeezing both nipples between his fingers. 

The swordsman nods, unable to find words to describe the growing sensation of heat rushing through his belly and groin. His hands come up to grasp Luffy’s shoulders and he simply holds him there for a moment, his eyes clamped shut; an action which his captain finds slightly amusing, and he laughs as his fingers gently twist and worry the hardening flesh on his swordsman’s chest. When Zoro’s grip gives out, his captain works his fingertips along Zoro’s neck and shoulders, down each arm, spreading each finger, and then to lick the sensitive skin usually left forgotten at his wrists. The green haired pirate is sweating and left panting as Luffy sits back, stroking his sides. 

“Zoro feels really good right now, doesn’t he?” Luffy whispers, lips brushing the swordsman’s earrings so that they chime together. 

Zoro nods again, his chest rising and falling. 

“I wanna make Zoro feel really good… really–really good.” Luffy whispers. “Can I?” 

So many strange sensations rocket up and down the swordsman’s body. He’s on fire. He’s out of breath. He can’t think – he doesn’t want to…. His captain’s voice alone is sending hot fervor down his neck and back. 

“Can I?” Luffy whispers again, tenderly passing his tongue over the skin behind Zoro’s left ear. 

“S-s-Sencho.” Zoro breathes, and it feels like he will worry apart.

“Trust me?” Luffy asks, still stroking his side. 

“O’ course I do.” Zoro croaks. 

“Relax.” His captain orders. And Zoro feels Luffy’s warmth retreat away briefly, until it returns, and there’s a vague pop, and something cool and slippery is dripping onto his sex and between his thighs. 

“Oi?” he moves to sit up, but Luffy holds his chest down. 

“Trust me?” he asks again, fingers move to grip him gently, slowly stroking down the sides of his shaft, and it feels so hot and good that Zoro moans, allowing his head to tip back and his hands to grasp handfuls of blue moss. 

“L-Luffy.” He keens. “I trust – trust you.” He manages. 

His captain continues to stroke gently, his other hand cupping and rolling his aching balls. For a while Zoro simply breathes, his body brought close to release and then pulled back, brought close, then pulled back… his spine is protesting, arching with every slow movement of his captain’s touch… and then the feeling changes. Luffy sits back, spreading Zoro’s thighs, and he can feel the younger pirate’s heat poised between them. 

“Zoro.” Luffy breaths, spreading the cooking oil he’s brought with them across his own aching erection. “Do you trust me?” he asks again, because he has to hear it one last time. 

The swordsman can barely make out Luffy’s wanting face in the dim blue light with the stars behind. His hair blended so completely with the black sky behind that he appears almost ethereal. “I trust you.” Zoro says again, and he rests his head down, closing his eyes. 

Luffy licks his lips, gently grasping Zoro’s upper thighs and lifting him forward. Zoro feels the head of his captain’s sex against his opening, and he swallows despite himself. 

The young man pauses, conscious of the vicious memory still so sharp in both of their minds. He wants to take it away, make it disappear. “Relax for me, my Zoro.” He croons. 

Zoro allows Luffy’s voice sink into him, and on his next exhale he lets all his muscles go. Luffy senses it, and slowly, very slowly, presses into his swordsman. It’s painful at first, and Zoro almost panics, but after the first initial sharpness, Luffy’s sex slides into him, making contact with something inside him that he’s never felt before, a touch that curls his toes and ripples waves of heat up his spine and even down his legs. The swordsman’s eyes roll back, and the sound of pleasure that escapes him translates directly into his captain. For almost a full minute the rubber man holds completely still, clutching Zoro’s thighs and trembling at the tight warmth he’s buried himself in so very completely. 

“Oh, wow.” He gasps before drawing his hips back, lifting Zoro’s right leg across one shoulder and allowing the other to rest on the cool ground. He gently bites and worries the swordsman’s calf before pushing into him again, deeper than before, and Zoro’s next exhale of hot need that tells him – More, Sencho! Oh, oh god! please more! – and he’s so willing to oblige. Sixteen and impatient, but stolen with the sensation of his new and wonderful discovery that Luffy takes his time, building up speed and pressure gradually until his swordsman is breathless and reaching for his captain. 

“Lu-Luffy!” Zoro keens, his body weak with sweating, and there’s almost numb warmth overflowing into his stomach, and his head swims because all his blood is somewhere else. 

Luffy notices Zoro’s apparent dilemma and brings a hand forward to envelope the swordsman’s swollen shaft, and it’s suddenly too much for the green haired pirate. He groans and writhes, incoherent noises escaping his lips, and Luffy, alert to his desperation, thrusts faster, thumb smearing the slick wetness seeping from his swordsman’s swollen head.

When Zoro comes, he’s blinded with white and red lights behind his tightly closed eyelids. Warm wetness pulsing across his own stomach and chest. Luffy thrusts again, and again, and once more before freezing, shivering. His mouth open in a silent scream with his face contorted in such a way that Zoro thinks for one horrible instant that his captain is in pain before he feels hot fire filling him, and knows it’s because he’s just released inside. As orgasm radiates through Zoro, he suddenly becomes aware that he can feel his captain’s racing heartbeat at the site of their connection. He focuses on nothing else, feeling the life of the dark haired pirate inside of him before it becomes too much, and Luffy slides out, casting himself on the mossy ground at Zoro’s side. 

“Oh, god… Sencho.” Zoro reaches for Luffy’s shoulder, his last bit of energy substantial enough to lay his hand against his captain’s skin before sleep overwhelms him.


	5. Yea, Right

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are no secrets, or if there are, they don't stay secret for very long.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ***I do not own One Piece. All credit belongs to the brilliant Eiichiro Oda***

“Um… oi…?” 

Zoro’s head is fuzzy, and his body is still humming with the afterglow from what he and Luffy had done together, when he feels something rough prodding against his hipbone. He swats sleepily at it. He’s warm, and the mossy ground is comfortable, Luffy tucked in against his chest and curled up in his arms. The green haired pirate nuzzles into his captain’s messy black hair, breathing him in. 

“Oi, wake up, Marimo.” Another nudge. 

“Get lost.” The swordsman mutters. 

“It’s morning. Breakfast is already made and Nami-san is worried, so – so common.” 

It seems to take a long time for Zoro to come to grips with the situation he’s found himself, and he takes tally. He’s naked – Luffy’s in his arms, also naked – they are both slightly gooey – it’s light out – and the blond cook is standing over them, staring pointedly anywhere but down at them.

“Oi, you are awake right? I’ll leave so you can get dressed. Hurry up, okay?”

The sound of Sanji’s shoes tapping on the next nearby rock and then back to the far bank recede into the jungle, and Zoro breathes out. Glad that the damn cook didn’t stand there until he and Luffy had gotten dressed. He gives his captain a slight shake to wake him up. 

“Mmmh?” Luffy blinks. “ ‘s morning?” 

“Yea, Sencho, it’s time for breakfast.” 

“Food!” Luffy springs up; impressive smile back on his lips possibly wider and even more brilliant than Zoro had remembered it from yesterday. 

Using the lake to clean themselves up, the water surprisingly warm, Luffy keeps glancing at Zoro. Zoro’s doing it too, and they can’t keep eye contact for every long before they’re smirking and looking away. When they hurry through the dense green undergrowth to rejoin the others on the beach they still haven’t said anything. 

“Oh! Thank god!” Nami shouts, she’s got tears in her eyes. “Sanji said he couldn’t find you! I’ve been worried sick!” 

Zoro lets their navigator throw her arms around him, fists beating against his back because she’s so relieved they haven’t been ‘eaten by wild animals!’ or ‘fallen into a ravine!’ or ‘kidnapped!’ or worse. The cook is resolutely busy flipping sausages and frying eggs, his eyes down and focused as Luffy rushes up to express his gratitude that they’re having meat with breakfast because he’s starving. Usopp’s a little red-eyed, but smiles when Nami releases Zoro, and the swordsman joins the Strawhat sniper at the table they’ve set up. 

“Did you two get lost or something?” he asks, “Oi, what’s that on your neck, looks like a pretty nasty bite.” 

Zoro’s hand claps over his neck so fast he could have knocked his own head off, and Sanji makes an audible gulping noise. 

Nami’s suddenly looking very serious, clicking her tongue. “Let me see it.” She orders, prying Zoro’s fingers away from his shirt collar. 

“It’s nothing, it’s–” 

He tries to fend off the girl’s inspection, but he’s unsuccessful. One look is all Nami needs to make out two crescent shaped lines of deep indents with a purpled bruise between. She’s a woman of the world, and it is certainly not the first time she’s seen a hickie. Her eyes widen as she lets go of Zoro’s shirt. 

“Um.” The navigator’s eyes stray from Zoro’s flushed cheeks to Luffy – who’s not paying attention, but rather animatedly watching Sanji cook their breakfast. “U-unnm…” she can’t seem to make her throat cooperate and simply points at Zoro, then tentatively at Luffy with a disbelieving look on her face. Usopp his stretching and rubbing his eyes. 

Zoro gives the smallest of nods, eyes pleading with the navigator. 

“So what is it, Nami? Some kinda mosquito or something?” Usopp grumbles, adjusting his overalls. 

“Um… what… yea…” the redhead stammers. “N-nothing to worry about, just a bug bite.” And she scuttles off to help Sanji with the eggs. 

“You should be more c-c-careful,” Usopp yawns as Nami walks away. “Getting bit in a strange jungle. Could have been anything.” 

Zoro lets out a long breath. “Yea, I’ll be more careful.” 

“Course,” the sniper digs an elbow into Zoro’s side, “Suppose that’s what you get for tangling with a rubber bug like him.”

Zoro’s face turns a shade of red even darker than before, if it was even possible. “I…w-whn?” 

Usopp taps the end of his long nose while the sound of Sanji slapping Luffy’s hand away from the sizzling sausages some ten meters away carries across the beach. Nami, having settled herself on a spread-out towel, is just staring at Luffy in mild shock. “Oh, common. I’ve seen a hickie before.” Usopp assures the swordsman. “And when Sanji came back from looking for you guys all white and gibbering, and says he didn’t manage to find you?” The sniper lets out a snigger. “Yea, right.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this story was enjoyed. Sorry if Zoro turned out a little less badass than he should - but I wanted to explore the possibility that he's not had an easy time alone in East Blue, and that his joining Luffy (and subsequent romance) is confusing him with both safety and feelings, two things he's not known for having an overabundance of. Feedback is welcome!


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